Copyright Information

The Guidelines for off-air recording of television broadcast programming for educational purposes state:

• A broadcast program may be recorded off-air simultaneously with broadcast transmission (including simultaneous cable retransmission) and retained by a nonprofit educational institution for a period not to exceed the first forty-five (45) consecutive calendar days after date of recording. Upon conclusion of such retention period, all off-air recordings must be erased or destroyed immediately. "Broadcast programs" are television programs transmitted by television stations for reception by the general public without charge.
• Off-air recordings may be used once by individual teachers in the course of relevant teaching activities, and repeated once only when instructional reinforcement is necessary, in classrooms and similar places devoted to instruction within a single building, cluster or campus, as well as in the homes of students receiving formalized home instruction, during the first ten (10) consecutive school days in the forty-five (45) day calendar day retention period. "School days" are school session days--not counting weekends, holidays, vacations, examination periods, and other scheduled interruptions--within the forty-five (45) calendar day retention period.
• After the first ten (10) consecutive school days, off-air recordings may be used up to the end of the forty-five (45) calendar day retention period only for teacher evaluation purposes i.e., to determine whether or not to include the broadcast program in the teaching curriculum, and may not be used in the recording institution for student exhibition or any other non-evaluation purpose without authorization.
• Off-air recordings need not be used in their entirety, but the recorded programs may not be altered from their original content. Off-air recordings may not be physically or electronically combined or merged to constitute teaching anthologies or compilations.
• All copies of off-air recording must include the copyright notice on the broadcast program as recorded.

These rules of thumb are based on the 1979 "Guidelines for Off-Air Recording of Broadcast Programming for Educational Purposes," contained in the House Report on Piracy and Counterfeiting Amendments (H.R. No. 495, 97th Cong., 1st Sess. at 8-9), as well as the Supreme Court decision in Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, 464 U.S. 417 (1984).

There is no rule that allows use of even a small amount of a video clip of a television program outside of the classroom guidelines. without permission from the copyright holder. Unless an exception to copyright applies, you need to obtain permission from the copyright holder.

If the library has a purchased copy of a television program (generally video or DVD) in its collection and you want to put it on reserve in the library for a specific class, contact the Library. See Libguide tab on copyright of DVDs or videos. If there is any question, library staff will check at the source to determine needed copyright permission.

You are responsible for copyright permission for your own web site. Is your web site in a secure location where only your students will be able to view the programming?

Just because something is on the Internet and is easy to use, does not mean it is free to use!  Be sure to cite or attribute what you do use appropriately. Internet resources often combine both copyrighted and public domain content. Use care in downloading any content from websites. Check site to see if permission should be requested or if allowed.

Be aware of the copyright ramifications of including embedded additional links to that particular site. Deep linking to pages several levels deep within a site may also lose this context and raise the objections of a site owner. These are at the very least courtesy situations and may be considered contributory infringement. In losing context, you may obscure attribution.